The Power of Your Darkness
by BlackRoseDragonCK
Summary: Oneshot during Waking the Dragons. Yami was surprised by how low and venomous his own voice sounded."You horrid creature of evil…I won't lose control of my dark side again." Leviathan smirked. "How can you lose something you never had?"


**I DO NOT OWN YUGIOH**

**Hi ^_^! I don't know why I love season 4 of Yugioh so much XD. I guess because it portrays Yami as more of a human with emotions and weaknesses than in the other seasons. Anyway, this one-shot was inspired by another anime I was watching ^_^. It takes place after episode 164. In this, Yami and Tea are staying at Ironheart's camp for the night before continuing on ^_^.**

**X**

_Cold…darkness…anger…nothingness…they are reaching for him. They claw at his heart with their cruel, sharp fingers, consuming him…instilling him with their essence. He opens his eyes and tries to see what is going on…but he is surrounded by pure blackness. He tries to listen for any sounds of movement…but the silence in the air is so thick that he feels as though he can reach out and touch it. He can neither see nor hear his attacker…he is completely helpless. The force grows stronger, spreading throughout his body like a raging forest fire…and it is only after a few moments that he realizes…that there is no enemy attacking him. He…is feeling the force of his own darkness…_

Yami gave a strangled gasp and sat up on his cot. His slim body was slick with sweat and his shoulders heaved up and down with each ragged breath. The Pharaoh lifted a shaking hand and ran it through his damp, tri-colored hair. He had been dreaming…a horrible, gruesome dream.

Yami closed his aching eyes and continued to breathe in the warm oxygen of the tent. In reality, it probably was not all that warm…but it felt warm compared to the coldness that had settled within him. He was shaking badly as the shock slowly wore off.

Swallowing hard, Yami turned to look over at the sharer of his tan-walled tent….Tea Gardner. The girl was fast asleep beneath the rough brown blanket Ironheart had given them, her chest heaving slowly up and down with peaceful sleep.

Tea's skin was beautifully white in the darkness, her black eyelashes delicately resting against her cheeks. Some of her chocolate hair was sticking to her face and the Pharaoh reached over, gently brushing it away. Tea gave a soft moan in her slumber, her pink lips forming into a gentle smile.

Despite the miserable feelings welling up within him, Yami could not help but allow a small grin to twist his lips. He adored everything about this girl…her kind, gentle heart…her feisty braveness…and her pure beauty, both inside and out.

Tea had helped Yami so much in the past few days….the days…following the greatest downfall of his life. Not only had he suffered his first real defeat…but he had given his heart to the darkness…and had lost his best friend and host in the process. Even after coming here to this desolate valley of souls, meeting Ironheart, and facing himself in battle…he felt tainted. There was still a black abyss lurking within his heart…something he had never really noticed before…but something that had always been there…waiting to be awakened.

Yami closed his eyes as the realization hit him, his already pale knuckles further whitening on the scratchy blanket. It was so ridiculously obvious now. After all this time…he recognized how he had always shrunk back into the darkness whenever his friends were basking in the light. The darkness…felt far more comfortable to him…as if…he belonged there. Perhaps he did.

Breathing shallowly, the Pharaoh cast one more glance at Tea. She had her head turned away from him…but he could still sense the light glowing within her soul. Maybe that was why he had always been so cautious around her….why he had never really let on to how he felt about her…because the power of light within her heart was so terrifyingly foreign to his heart of darkness.

Finally, Yami couldn't take it anymore and had to get out of the tent. He pushed past the canvas folds of the opening and stepped out onto the hard, rocky ground of the crevasse. Great walls of rock surrounded him, ominously silhouetted in the darkness. The cool breeze touched his face and, though he could not see it due to the rocky walls, Yami could tell that the moon was out because of the pallid glow that washed over everything.

The youth began to walk toward the river where he and Tea had been found by Ironheart, his black studded shoes sounding terribly loud in the palpable silence. After only a few minutes of walking, he reached the long body of water, its gently flowing liquid adding some sound to the eerie quiet. There was a break in the rock wall above him and Yami could see the star-strewn, ebony sky now. The silver moon shone down, reflected off the river's obsidian water.

This place truly was beautiful, Yami thought, and his heart went cold. Maybe he thought it beautiful…because it was so dark and grotesque….like him. Sighing, he went to stand at the river's edge and gazed down it his mirror image in the water.

Though he never truly realized it, Yami was darkly attractive. His red, black, and blonde hair was styled into sharp, deadly-looking spikes and he always dressed in dark jeans, black tank tops, and studded belts. The blackness of his clothing made his skin seem even paler and set off his most exceptional feature…his eyes. Yami's eyes were the color of freshly drawn blood, lined with thick, black lashes. Those eyes were sharp enough to cut through glass, and sent fear into the hearts of more than one of his foes. Indeed he was attractive….and dark. That was clear both in his appearance…and his actions.

The Pharaoh's jaw grew tense as he though on all that had happened. Perhaps the Seal of Orichalcos hadn't made him evil…perhaps, as Rafael had said, it just revealed what was in his heart the whole time…a vast sea of shadows.

Yami's blood eyes narrowed. He thought of Weevil…who he had gladly destroyed….Pegasus…who he had originally intended to drown in shadows but chose not to because of his own pride…Marik….the man he would have had no qualms about obliterating if it had not been for Yugi's pleas. Maybe the Pharaoh was just like all those people he had battled….No, he could not believe that. He fought for the good of the world, not to wreak havoc upon it. Still…did he really have the right to preach to those countless people about the importance of conquering their own darkness…when he was far from doing that very thing?

The Pharaoh let out another shaky breath…and drew it back in the same instant. He could hear something….something faint…but something that seemed loud in the stirring silence.

He looked around, feeling the anxiety build up within him. His blood eyes flicked over the moon-washed, desolate landscape….and he felt his blood turn cold. The shadows…the shadows all around….were writhing. They swirled and danced over the stony walls of the chasm, surrounding the Pharaoh in a circle of darkness.

Yami rubbed his hands over his pale arms…though he did not do so because of any cold. The shadows…they seemed to radiate with horrible emotions. Anger…sorrow…greed….vengeance….they all converged into one, powerful force that threatened to overwhelm him.

Then….the voices came. They echoed inside the Pharaoh's head, their words making his heart race with panic and desperation. He knew that he was in the Valley of Souls…that he shouldn't be alarmed by this….but he was all the same.

_"You destroyed me….you obliterated my mind….you sent me into the darkness….you took my soul…."_

Yami's breath was coming out in short gasps now. He hugged himself tighter, trying to ignore the voices in the shadows…but he could not ignore the figures that were beginning to rise from the darkness.

Their faces were contorted in their ebony, ghost forms….but they were horridly familiar all the same. Ushio…Nagumo…Weevil…and many others…..all people on whom he'd taken vengeance in his dark, primal past. All people….who had fallen victim to his darkness.

"No…." Yami's knees buckled beneath him and he slid to the cold, hard ground. His knees hit the rock and pain shot through his legs, but he barely noticed. His entire body was trembling violently. The youth couldn't believe that after all these years of going after those who harmed others….he had left so many victims in his own wake.

A familiar sinister sensation spread throughout the Pharaoh's body and he screamed in agony and despair. It was that familiar helplessness…the overwhelming feeling that he could not control his own negative emotions. Yami dragged himself across the rough ground, not caring that he was making his hands bloody on the rough rocks. He finally stopped when he was at the obsidian river's edge….and gave a strangled gasp.

"No…not this…." Yami whispered as he stared at the Orchalcos symbol burning wickedly on his forehead.

The emerald glow mocked him, seeming to glow brighter the more he begged it to vanish. The spirits of those who had met their demise at his hands drew in closer, their sinister laughs tormenting him body and soul.

_"You destroyed our lives…"_ The ghosts whispered on the wind. Yami clamped his hands over his ears and shrunk in on himself, but he could not get their words out of his head. _"You who claims to walk in the light…you sent us into the darkness…"_

"Forgive me…." The Pharaoh's normally majestic voice came out in a whimper. "Please….I'm….I'm not evil….leave me alone…." He wrapped his arms around his head, hot tears streaming down his pale face. Never had he felt so helpless…so lost…so dark…he felt as if he were drowning in the night. There was no light…no beauty…no pretense of dreams….the shadows were his new domain.

"Where are you running to…." A growling, demonic voice said. "…you who bears my mark?"

The Pharaoh looked up, bothering to conceal neither the tears nor terror contorting his striking features. There….hovering over the river in front of him….was a massive black serpent that looked almost as if it were made of the darkness itself. It had glowing yellow eyes…eyes that he recognized. They were the same as that eye in the Realm of the Beasts…the eye of the Leviathan.

"Get away from me…." Yami was surprised by how low and venomous his own voice sounded, though he was still trembling. "….you horrid creature of evil…I won't lose control of my dark side again…."

The Leviathan let out a raspy sound that rumbled the earth…and it took Yami a moment to recognize it as a laugh. "How can you lose something that you never had? Horrid creature of evil…how hypocritical. You loathe me as a being who destroys countless innocent lives….when you've done the exact same thing…"

"No…" the Pharaoh's voice was consumed again by fear. His scraped hands tightened into fists…though he was far from feeling strong. "I'm not evil…. we are not alike…"

"We are exactly alike!" the creature snarled. Shadows streamed around him, shaking the ground, making it nearly unrecognizable in the darkness. "Look at all these people you've sent into oblivion!"

Yami whimpered softly and shook his head, hanging it low again. The Leviathan wouldn't let him look away, however. He reached out with a tendril of dark energy and raised the youth's chin, forcing him to look at all those lost souls. They glared at him, hissing acidic words of hatred. He could feel their emotions…their rage….their misery…their thirst for revenge…and it threatened to consume him.

Tears streamed from Yami's blood eyes as he tried to turn his head…but the serpent would not let him. The creature let out another cruel laugh.

"There is no where you can run to…everyone hates you….they will never forgive you…they despise you."

Leviathan released the Pharaoh and he hugged himself again, leaning down toward the ground. His shoulders were shaking with sobs, the terror and sorrow settling on his heart. The serpent gave another cruel laugh and that only made Yami sob harder.

"Please…" Yami wept, crystal-like tears dripping onto his bloodied hands. His shoulders shook violently and he kept his head bowed low like a beaten dog. He felt pathetic…terrified…miserable…

"That's right, little creature of darkness…" Leviathan growled. "Everyone despises you…you are loved by no one…."

"That's not true!" a firm and familiar voice spoke.

The Pharaoh looked up, blinking back the tears in his ruby eyes, and turned to gaze over his shoulder. There…standing at the brink of the circle of shadows…was Tea. The girl's beautiful face was set in a determined line and her sapphire eyes sparkled feverishly. Her chocolate hair blew gracefully against her porcelain face and she glared fiercely at the black serpent.

"No, Tea!" Yami's voice came out in a shrill tone of panic. He forced his weak, drained body to turn around and reached his arm out to stop her. "Please…don't come near me! I'm evil…you have to stay away…before I hurt you too…"

Tea however, paid no heed to his words. She strode boldly forward, pushing through the shadows as if they weren't even there. Her body…seemed to be glowing with an essence of light…and the darkness could not touch her. She came right to the duelist and knelt down in front of him.

"You aren't hated Yami…" the girl murmured, smiling sweetly at him. "Yugi likes you…Joey likes you…Tristan likes you…we all like you. Don't let this monster tell you otherwise."

Yami stared up at her, his face streaked with tears and his form trembling with sobs. "But….I…."

"No buts…" Tea took his face between her hands, wiping the tears away with her thumbs. Her gentle touch sent a wave of relief throughout his pain-racked body. Yami closed his eyes and leaned into her palms. He cautiously lifted his arms and placed his own wounded hands on her waist, pulling her closer.

Suddenly, the darkness surrounding them crackled, sending bolts of purple electricity crackling through the air. The shadows wavered…and a sudden strength began to glow within the Pharaoh's heart. It was not one of light…the darkness was still there…but it felt different somehow as if…he could control it. The Great Leviathan let out a roar of anger.

"What! There's a crack in my power! How is this possible! Do your really think that you can escape the darkness of your own soul?"

"Don't listen to him…" Tea murmured, her gems of ice never leaving his orbs of fire. "It's true. You do wield the power of darkness…but just because you wield a dark power, it does not make you evil! The power belongs to you. You control it. It does not control you."

The Pharaoh moved even closer to her, relishing the warmth and comfort she gave him. She was so close…he could see every sparkle in her eyes of sapphire…could feel her warm breath against his face.

"You really believe that…?" he whispered. "You…don't hate me for everything I've done?"

"Yami, the past doesn't matter…" the girl replied. "Don't underestimate how much you mean to everyone…how much…you mean to me…." She wound her arms around his neck. "I don't hate you….I love you."

Tea leaned in and pressed her lips against his, hugging his neck tightly as she did so. Yami felt as though he would melt in her arms and groaned in protest when she pulled away. The brunette gave him a playful look and stood up, stepping backward a few paces.

"Come on, Yami, enough messing around," the girl teased, placing her hands on her hips. "Don't hesitate before the Leviathan. Be strong! Get up now. Show me the power of your darkness!"

As if responding to her words, Yami's body began to glow and crackle with shadow power. His Millennium Puzzle glowed and his body pulsated with a dark cloud. The Seal of Orichalcos on his forehead shattered, replaced by the Eye of Horus, and his striking eyes gleamed like blood.

Yami glared venomously at the Great Leviathan. "You don't control me. This darkness is my power…and I am going to use it!"

The youth spread out his arms and tilted his head backward, letting the power of darkness build up inside him. It burned with a might he never could have imagined…but if did not threaten to overwhelm him. He was in control now.

Yami let out a mighty cry and thrust his hand toward the lurking form of the Great Leviathan. The dark energy swirled around him, dancing along his arm and hurtling toward the horrid beast.

Leviathan shrieked in rage as the shadows consumed him, covering every inch of his ghastly body and washing over his sinister emerald Seal. The shadows swarmed through the vengeful spirits of the Pharaoh's enemies, drowning them once and for all in the obsidian abyss. The great serpent tried to fight the looming, crackling cloud of black and purple energy…but he was no match for the Pharaoh's darkness. Finally, Leviathan gave up…and began slowly withering away beneath the unstoppable force.

Yami kept his head held high, his blood eyes gleaming coldly as he looked down upon his enemy. The Eye of Horus blazed on his forehead, as if daring the monster to challenge its might.

"My apologies, Great Leviathan…" he growled, watching the serpent slowly vanish from existence. "…but you are no match for the power of my darkness."

The beast let out one last snarl of rage…and everything disappeared. The ghosts faded back into the Underworld…the Seal of Orichalcos broke apart…and the Great Leviathan's essence of oppressive evil…dissipated.

Yami fell to his knees, shoulders heaving up and down as the adrenaline slowly wore off. He could feel the power flowing back into his veins…and it felt different now. The darkness was still there…but it was his. He could use it. It was as much apart of him as his pale skin, deep voice, and deadly killer's eyes.

Soft footsteps padded up behind him and the Pharaoh turned. Tea stood there, her sapphire eyes bright with a proud smile. "I knew you could do it."

Yami smiled and got to his feet. He went to the girl who had stolen his heart, took both her hands in his, and clashed his fiery orbs with her icy gems.

"I surely didn't," he murmured. "…and I never would have figured it out…if it had not been for you. Thank you, Tea Gardner. You saved me…saved me…from myself."

A faint blush danced across the brunette's cheeks and she bowed her head with a sudden shyness. "It was nothing…." She whispered.

A smirk twisted the Pharaoh's lips. He placed a single pale finger beneath her chin and lifted her head toward his. "I wish to show you…just how grateful I am."

Tea opened her mouth to say something, but Yami abruptly closed it with a deep, fervent kiss. He could feel her momentary surprise and eager recovery, relishing her soft sweetness as she enjoyed his rough spice. She wound her arms around his neck and he caressed her shoulders, sliding his hands down to her hips and pulling her slender form even closer to his.

Finally, the two broke for need of oxygen and Tea pressed her face into the crook of his neck. Yami kept one arm tightly around her waist but buried his free hand in her soft locks of dark hair. Both their bodies were exhausted…but their hearts burned with excitement and adoration.

The Pharaoh pulled back slightly and picked her up bridal-style, cradling her possessively against his chest. He started toward the tent, his newfound fondness for darkness calling him to the shadowed walls of the tan canvas.

Tea placed her hand on his chest, raising a single brow quizzically.

"Are you finally ready to come to bed?" she asked.

Yami gave his usual cocky smirk and leaned down, whispering into her ear and making her shiver at the feel of his hot breath.

"Only if you come with me." The Pharaoh murmured, his voice low and wonderfully dark. "I am not afraid of the dark anymore…but I still need a light to help me find my way."

**The rest is left to your preferred imagination ^_^. I hope you liked and please review :)! Please no flames ^_^. Oh, and I can't remember who all I told I was making one, but I made a Yami Yugi Plushie and just finished him today :). I took a picture of him and put him as my profile fic if anyone would like to see him, although it may not show up until tomorrow since I just submitted the picture today XD.**


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